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Republicans are saying “no, no, no” to any resolution on the debt ceiling and instead turning their focus to another issue. What is Dennis Rehberg, candidate for U.S. Senate focused on today?

Light Bulbs.

That’s right. Dennis “I sue firefighters who save my land” Rehberg of Montana is not focusing on the economy and the important debate over the debt ceiling and expressing his intense emotion about light bulbs.

I guess to each according to his abilities. Rather than work on jobs, the economy, and the debt ceiling, of course Rehberg and the Republicans are debating the merits of incandescent light bulbs.

The Republican House voted this week on H.R. 2417, The Better Use of Light Bulbs (BULB) Act, which would repeal certain sections in the 2007 Energy and Independence Act with respect to lighting energy efficiency. Rehberg voted with the TEA Party.

The 2007 law doesn’t require Americans to buy compact fluorescents or any other type of light bulb. All Congress has done is set a national standard for how much power it takes to produce a certain amount of light. And there’s good reason to demand improved efficiency; about 90 percent of the energy that traditional incandescent bulbs use is given off as heat, not light.

…

Philips, the Dutch electronics giant, estimates that replacing a traditional 75-watt incandescent bulb with one of its latest light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs would save a household $160 in energy costs over its life. The company also reckons that replacing just the 90?million or so 75-watt incandescent bulbs sold in America annually with these advanced bulbs would reduce yearly energy use by 5,220 megawatts, saving $630?million and 3.26?million tons of carbon emissions — comparable to taking a million cars off the road. Not all Americans will choose to invest in one of Philips’s extremely efficient new bulbs, but, the Natural Resources Defense Council estimates, under the federal standards, the average family’s energy bill should drop by about 7 percent a year.